Search Of Surry Home Yields Clues To Slaying

April 19, 1991|By LESLIE POSTAL Staff Writer

SURRY — A police search of the home owned by the parents of accused killer Dr. Jean-Claude Pierre Hill turned up a green and white striped T-shirt and jeans that match witnesses' descriptions of the clothing worn by the gunman during last week's triple shooting in Philadelphia.

Looking for clues to Hill's ``mental capacity'' at the time of the shooting, police found the clothing, a .45-caliber handgun, ammunition and 12 different types of medication, including drugs used to treat psychotic behavior, according to a search warrant application made by the Sheriff's Department on behalf of the Philadelphia police.

Relatives told police Hill had worn that same T-shirt and jeans for three consecutive days leading up to the shootings.

Hill, who says he is innocent, is charged with murder and aggravated assault in the April 8 shooting that left one man dead and two wounded. He is being held in the Philadelphia Detention Center without bail. Police found the items during a search of the Surry home on Sunday, according to court records.

Police seized a red bag with pill bottles that contained, among other medications, the prescription drugs Haldol, Loxipine and Clonazepam. Haldol and Loxipine are used to treat psychotic disorders and Clonazepam is used to treat convulsions, according to the Physician's Desk Reference and Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary.

Hill was committed to a mental hospital in 1989 after he brandished a loaded gun at his father and was forced to leave a Army Reserve training course last summer because he physically attacked other doctors in the program.

He was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, a lack of thyroid hormone, according to court records. Several local psychiatrists said while the disorder could cause depression and feelings of indifference, it would be very unusual for it to cause violent, aggressive behavior.

Hill arrived in Philadelphia April 6 to look for an apartment because he was scheduled to begin a residency program in psychiatry at Hahnemann University Hospital in May. Another item seized in the search Sunday was a deposit slip from a Philadelphia apartment complex.

Hill wore the striped T-shirt and jeans every day until he left the city on the evening of April 8, relatives told police. Hill's cousin, with whom he'd been staying, called Philadelphia police after hearing a description of the gunman and his car on the news.

Hill was arrested the next day while jogging near his parents' house.

Police searched his Chevrolet Cavalier and found another .45-caliber handgun. Ballistic tests, they said, showed that gun was used in the shootings.

Hill was valedictorian in his 1978 class at Surry County High School and also graduated from Hampton University with honors.